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No, unfortunately the Bolshoi won't tour Hong Kong or Macau this time. This Bolshoi tour to Beijing was just arranged after the Chinese President Jiang's meeting with President Putin in Moscow several weeks ago.

However there is a possibility that the Kirov may tour Hong Kong again in a year's time after its China tour.

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Joseph, I just checked the website of the Shanghai IBC, but I couldn't see the list of competitors. However, the website lists the members of the jury panel which includes Natalia Makarova and Frank Andersen.

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I heard there would be about 120 young dancers at Shanghai IBC. But most of them are the dancers or ballet students from other cities in China such as Beijing, Shenyang (Liaoning Province), Tianjin, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, in addition to the local dancer from Shanghai Ballet.

Only 30 (or more) dancers come from foreign countries.

The National Ballet of China will send 10 dancers to the competition. But none of them is principal dancer. I think a girl called Meng Ningning is most likely to get a medal. She is already a soloist and has danced some principal roles. Wen Fang is also nice. She was the bronze medallist at Varna in 1997 or 1998(I am not very sure, at Junior section). The problem with her is that she is not tall enough. I also heard that some fine dancers from Shanghai such as Fan Xiao Feng, Sun Yi Shen (Varna Gold Medallists last year) and Yao Wei (Helsinki Gold Medallist this Year) would attend the IBC.

FYI.

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Thanks for the update, Hu. This is a fine supplement to information provided to me by our friends in the Shanghai IBC office. I'm off to Beijing, then Shanghai, in a couple of days. We shall see what we shall see.... ;)

[ 08-02-2001: Message edited by: Jeannie ]

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So far, 103 dancers have been registered, including 27 dancers from foreign countries. The youngest dancer will be a girl called Shangguan Yunting. She is only 14 years old. She is a ballet student at Shanghai Dance Academy. The oldest one will be a girl called Jennifer Owen from USA. She is 27 years old.

The local Shanghai Ballet will send 7 dancers to the IBC, and Shanghai Dance Academy, 16 students.FYI.

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I was in Inner Mongolia last week and came back to Beijing on Monday. Since Jeannie had told me she would leave for Shanghai on Tuesday, I went the hotel she stayed and managed to see her and her husband right before their leave.

Jeannie looked happy and said they had enjoyed their stay in Beijing very much.

Our friends (Helen and I) saw the opening performance (Swan Lake by Shanghai Ballet ) and the first round of the Shanghai IBC. They said a boy from Vietnam looked outstanding.

Since I forgot to take the phone numbers of Shanghai friend with me when I met Jeannie. I would like to put them here, just in case Jeannie find an internet cafe and view this msg.

We have some ballet friends in Shanghai. I think they can give Jeannie lots of local information or even introduce some dancers to Jeannie. One of our friends is Wa Wa. She majored in English at college and is learning ballet in her spare time now (she even shares the same teacher with Yao Wei, the Helsinki IBC gold medallist). Her phone number is: 64381100*104（daytime) / 62622591(home) / or 1362 1919 749 (mobile).

Please call her, Jeannie, whenever you need a help or information related to the IBC.

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Greetings from China!!! I just got to Shanghai yesterday morn, after a 14-hour, overnight train ride from Beijing...'3rd class carriage' in the 'hard seats' compartment. Not much sleep but chock-full of 'local color'. Actually, it's been a blast. I climbed the Great Wall at Badaling {the best-known section of the wall seen in all the posters, etc.}...no photo does it justice. All of you need to see it for yourselves someday...and don't forget to work out prior to your trip. I feel that my hubby & I earned gold medals just for surviving the one-hour climb to the highest point...LOL!! Anyhow, I know that all of you are waiting for a Shanghai IBC report. I attended the 3rd and final day of Round One yesterday (yes - after the train ride) and will begin a new topic shortly.

By the way, it was wonderful to meet our member-in-Beijing, HU Xinxin. Thanks for your insights, Xinxin!!!!